Microsoft has launched the long-rumored subscription service to an all-in-one software suite, which combines Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Office Live Workspace, Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, and Windows Live Photo Gallery. Formerly codenamed Albany, the new offering is a direct take on Google Docs and is now called Equipt.

The subscription costs $70 per year. Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is around $150, and new versions of Office get released about once every four years. This means that you eventually pay $280 for a $150 program which you could own without hassles, but there's also Windows Live OneCare which slightly compensates for the disadvantage, as it costs $49.95 per year.

As with all Microsoft products, they are apparently trying to charge the maximum that they think people are willing to pay. What they don't appear to understand is that free software is on hot on Microsoft's heels, with many offerings including Google's Docs online suite which is ad-supported and free, Open Office, and IBM's Lotus Symphony.

Lotus Symphony supports multiple file formats, including Microsoft Office and Open Document Format (ODF), and also can output content in PDF format. Still Lotus Symphony can’t open all Microsoft documents. Some advanced features such as embedded macros are not supported and there may be other conversion issues. Also the macros created in Lotus Symphony are not exportable to Microsoft Office.

Equipt will initially be available only in the U.S. starting July 15, in nearly 700 Circuit City stores. Anytime a new version of Office or Windows Live OneCare is released, Microsoft Equipt customers will get the version upgrades as part of their subscriptions, Microsoft said in its statement.

One Equipt license will be good for three PCs, which really makes it cost-effective only to people who own more than one PC or families. Microsoft made it clear that the company is not straying from their traditional software sales model, and permanent licenses will always be available to Office products.